Baby, it's cold outside ...

If you’re looking for some relief from the cold, you’ll have to wait until Sunday.

Until then, bundle up.

A long-lived arctic outbreak has brought dangerously cold conditions to much of the central and eastern United States since Christmastime and will continue into this weekend.

The National Weather Service has issued wind chill advisories and freeze warnings covering a vast area, from South Texas to Canada and from Montana to Maine. The arctic blast was blamed for freezing a water tower in the Waterloo suburb of Evansdale Monday evening.

Around the country this week, the bitter cold also halted a ferry service in New York and trapped a swan in a Virginia pond. Wind chills in the 50s below zero have been observed in North Dakota and northern Minnesota. At the same time, a heatwave swept into the country’s northernmost state: Anchorage, Alaska, tied a record high on Tuesday of 44 degrees — at the same time Jacksonville, Florida, was a mere 38 degrees.

The southward dip in the jet stream that allowed this cold weather pattern to grip the central and eastern states will likely re-amplify through the end of this week, according to the National Weather Service.